The Stargazing Witch & The Dungeon Planet
Chapter 98: Choice

Chapter 98: Choice

I didn’t know what was worse.

The fact that the person I wanted to kill the most in the world was right in front of me, but has the ability to get away very easily.

Or the fact that a large space battleship was flying in with its guns aimed ready to annihilate hundreds of thousands of lives.

I mean, option one was actually worse, but objectively probably option two.

Sigh… Why does this situation have to keep getting more complicated by the second? I just want to kill one bastard.

(“ Originally your plan was to kill as many Dominous Hood members as you could ”)

I don’t really care about the rest of them now that Thomas is here.

(“ Fair enough ”)

I was activating [Burst] to stay afloat now that I had ample mana to waste. 

Thomas clicked his fingers. “Wow, you are quite hot right now.”

His robot friend reprimanded. “Sir, please, let’s get a move on.”

I pointed to the massive warship pulled straight from fiction. “What? Do you not want to see what your friends over there are going to do?”

Large space battleships weren’t a thing, mostly weren’t a thing.

(“ I’m feeling a lot of panic from most people on the open side of the station ”)

Because look at those guns, they are aimed at the station. Guns that are that size of spacecraft are illegal, among many other things wrong with that ship.

I explained to Espr the extra problem the station was now facing. 

I wasn’t an expert on most of history, but I knew enough to know that space warships the size of stations were mostly fiction and for video games. The closest one normally got to them was attaching some guns onto a transport vessel. 

But what had decided to break out of a bloody moon–that I have no idea how it was hiding there or even snuck in there–couldn’t be called just a carriership with guns. All over its large body were small weapons, and on the top of the ship there were multiple ludicrously large supercharger barrels designed to make any projectile extraordinarily dangerous.

I knew a couple had been built during an experimental couple of years during the first thousand years of space exploration, but they were discontinued, dismantled, or unarmed and reused as transport ships. The biggest threat in space was pirates, and a warship was overkill for them, and massive fighting on other planets never happened. So, after discussing so no potentially awful mistakes happened in the future, a long time ago intergalactic laws were passed to limit large space-faring vessels whose primary or secondary function was for combat and/or military use.

Not that there was no conflict between planets, but every conflict was at most small scuffles. Especially compared to the percentage scales of the wars and bloody conflicts told in pre-Shift history. The lack of a major space war was called a miracle by many.

(“ I see, interesting, human history is such a funny thing sometimes ”)

After a moment, Thomas replied to my question. “I don’t know, likely they are just going to destroy this place anyway.”

(“ True ”)

Bloody bastards.

“Bloody bastards.” My voice leaked out.

“I heard that.”

“Oh, were my thoughts not in my head? My bad.” I kept examining Thomas and his robot friend, the only reason I hadn’t launched another attack yet was because of his speed. 

If he really wanted to, I knew he could run away without issue, so I wanted to make my strike count. However, I didn’t have much time, I didn’t know when that ship was going to fire.

…I could just abandon everyone here…

(“ True ”)

Fire began to drip off my body like water drops. I increased the strength of my armour to counteract the intense heat and to help make sure it survived.

But…

(“ No reason for you to not ”)

…Well, I will be killing Thomas first.

The current mana that was in Adding A Byte was more than my max tank. 

I said it aloud. “I don’t know if you can hear me, but whoever is controlling the tower's shields, you might want to refocus it.”

Thomas laughed, “What, you want to blow the three of us up?”

“No, I will never die, especially not by fighting you.” For once I spoke with pure venom in my voice.

“There’s that hatred, called it.” He laughed at my more obvious anger, while the robot was getting worried.

“Yeah, I hate you.” I clenched my fist, and my flames burned brighter. “At best you are pure scum.” 

“Oh, ouch.” He continued to joke about it. I guess he was confident to escape now. Maybe when he decided to kill me, he went serious, but now that he has to leave, he dropped that demeanour.

“You launched an attack on a station naturally populated with hundreds of thousands of people, now ready to murder every single one of them for what? A few fucking items?! That’s just your much recent act of pure utter irrational sadistic madness.”

“Just saying, destroying it wasn’t part of the plan. Man, they should’ve just listened to me and grabbed them on the way out, but nooooooooo, this is the only chance to grab them all they said. Plus, we aren’t the ones destroying it.”

The robot pleaded. "Please, sir, will you shut up.”

(“ Now kill him and be done with this place ”)

…

“Well, let’s start with burning you alive.”

[Flame Jail]. [Scorch Extinction].

I created ten dark orange orbs for [Scorched Extinction] and created a massive [Flame Jail] that covered all of us and had room to spare. I needed it to be larger to handle blasts of [Scorch Extinction].

His goofy tone dropped again. “I might’ve missed something, but you weren’t this dangerous earlier.” His rifle disappeared, and a black light appeared around his armour. “But I do wish I learned about you sooner, even before your power up, you are someone who should’ve been on the hit list ages ago.” Then he started to float.

“What can I say? I’m not too popular.” I explode downwards towards them. The spear of starlight has shifted into a spear of exploding fire. The inner layer of starlight had barely been able to maintain its shape under the violent flames.

“Sir!” The robot jumped into my attack. A blue shield had formed around it.

“Out my way!” With an extremely amplified [Burst] and hastily formed Starlight spike, I broke through the shield and collided with the robot’s body.

I reached for it and slammed it into the tower’s side and continued my way to Thomas. The robot was left extremely damaged and was left to be burned by the [Hungering Flame].

The black aura intensified, and different sections of his body glowed different colours. He vanished and appeared far away, still trapped in the jail. I strengthened the [Flame Jail] to make sure he couldn’t get out. I didn’t use the [Star Wall] as I couldn’t convert the extra mana into Starlight so it was best to try and save that resource.

We flew around the arena, with him on the defensive.

Espr… I hate Dominous Hood.

(“ Correct ”)

I…

Flames burned bright, and I dropped two [Scorch Extinction] orbs. Their flames filled the jail.

I couldn’t even see the robot anymore, and I could only feel Thomas' presence as he flew around the arena at max speed in what felt like every direction.

(“ You? ”)

I don’t want to be like them.

(“ It what way? Murdering people—you do that pretty frequently. You already gave up most of your empathy and human morals.  ”)

Yeah. I don’t think I am a good person. But I don’t want to be labelled into the same grouping as those who directed a plan that would murder hundreds of thousands of people just because they got in the way.

(“ What’s your plan? ”)

Once this bastard is dead. I’m going to stop that ship.

(“ I do understand your feelings on a deeper level thanks to our connection, and honestly, you are sounding a little hypocritical. I can easily see you ignoring innocent lives for your goals in the future if they were more important. Though I guess your goal one is still to kill the bastard, but the point still stands ”)

Esporimissa, you know I went insane a long time ago.

My logic was completely flawed. I knew that. I knew I could see myself making a different decision in slightly different circumstances. If I was a slightly bit more angry, if I needed to go somewhere else, and if Thomas ran away earlier. 

(“ HAHA Yes, good, good, be selfish like that, make up your own rules that suit you at every moment. Hahaha, it will be fun to have you always by my side ”)

I could feel Thomas as his body faded in and out of existence near the edges of the flames, wherever it was weakest. Which was nowhere near me, as the concentration flames were strong and grew where I stood.

I felt his presence try to fade through the barrier.

Ting!

Before I could even move towards him.

Suddenly, a pain that filled my stomach quaked connected to my soul. The constant aches I felt were amplified a hundredfold.

He was nowhere near me. I felt no disruptions. Nothing.

But somehow.

There was an arrow poking through my body.